Diary: Brainstorming slips under the PC radar

Annoyed at being told not to use the term 'brainstorming', as it was
non-PC and would cause offence to people with mental illnesses, Andy
Green of Wakefield-based Green PR got in touch with 13 mental health
charities for a brainst ... sorry, to ask their opinion.

The word came back that none of the organisations, which included
Mencap, Mind, Sane and Epilepsy Action, had ever considered the term
non-PC and had no formal policies to deal with its use.

'It's an urban myth,' says Green. 'We've come across people who have
told us: "you're not allowed to use that word", and we've even heard
anecdotal evidence of police forces refusing to use the term in
meetings.

He adds: 'Brainstorming can be a valuable process, but we've seen
debates over the correctness of the word getting in the way of the
process itself. Hopefully this will put an end to it.' Smile, you broke
the world record The image of the British stiff upper lip appears to be
under threat. Hewlett Packard last week broke the Guinness world record
for staging the biggest exhibition of images - 33,000 - all of them
smiles.

The upturned mouths of celebs including Ken Livingstone, comedian Brian
Conley, newsreader Dermot Murnaghan and weather woman Sian Lloyd were
among those displayed at The Royal College of Art with the rest
available for download on Hewlett Packard's website, each for which the
imaging giant is donating 25p to children's charity NCH.

Other beamers ranged from revellers at the Glastonbury music festival to
proud parents and babies. Even a camel managed to sneak in - as did a
couple of account handlers at HP's agency Porter Novelli.